Press releases have many benefits, including offering the opportunity for your company to control your story, improve your SEO, give your social media boost, and display your expertise.
Press releases are an excellent tool for both your marketing and public relations.
However, it can backfire if you make some of the most common press release mistakes.
Bad Press Releases
To avoid creating a bad press release:
- Focus on the newsworthy aspect of your story and the interests of your target audience.
- Write engaging headlines
- Utilize social media
- Limit the number of press releases
- Follow a press release template
- Write in third-person
- Proofread for errors
- Include a clear call to action.
Let’s take a look at some of the specifics you need to know in order to avoid bad press releases.
Not Focusing on the Newsworthy Aspect of Your Story
News organizations exist to report news, not to promote your products and services. Unless you find something newsworthy about your story, it will never see the light of day.
And remember, newsworthy is in the eye of the beholder. For the right industry trade magazine, your $25 million company’s new product announcement could be considered news. But the New York Times probably won’t consider that to be news.
Whenever you see a news story, get into the habit of asking yourself, “what made that story newsworthy?” It’s great practice for identifying news hooks for your stories.
Making It All About You
You never want to forget who your audience is. Even though your press release is about your company, you want to make sure that you are focusing on the ways in which your news is relevant to the target audience.
Press releases aren’t an opportunity to cut yourself on the back. They are a marketing endeavor.
Focusing on Driving Traffic to Your Website
While press releases used to be all about driving traffic to your website, that’s not the case anymore. What you want to focus on instead is growing your brand awareness, engage in your audience, and promoting transparency.
Writing Boring Headlines
You have to understand that journalists are digging through hundreds of press releases every day. This means that if your headline doesn’t catch their attention and they might not even read it. He’ll want your headline to be relevant, to the point, and intriguing.
At the same time, you don’t want to make promises in your headline that won’t be fulfilled in the body of the text. If you reach too far trying to grab the attention of your audience, you can end up misleading them when they find that the content they’re looking for is not there.
If you think about headline as a promise that you are expected to keep. Writing headlines that make people want to read your press release is great, but you just want to make sure that you deliver on what you promise.
Not Modifying Headlines to Fit the Audience
Different press releases all have different audiences. If you’re sending a press release for the wire, it is fine to use a generic press release. If your posting on your website, however, you want to be sure to reformat it and edit it for your blog.
Not Utilizing the Marketing Power of Social Media
Social media is an incredibly powerful tool.
It’s important to be able to get a sense of whether or not your content is engaging your audience. If your press releases gaining a lot of traction, then you can continue to produce follow-up content. If it isn’t taking off, you want to be sure not to Dr. audience and said you should focus on your brand’s social media strategy.
Sending Irrelevant Press Releases
You don’t want to send out too many press statements. This will make your brand come off as spammy and it can make it seem like a less credible company.
Not Following a Template
Bad pestilences can either contain way too much information or not enough. A successful press release will focus on the message and concise.
Using a press release template can help to give you guidance so you don’t go off track here.
Using the Wrong Voice
Press releases are not the same as social media messages or blogs. You want to use the third person rather than the second person to help ensure they are coming off as trustworthy and authoritative.
Setting the Wrong Tone
The tone is absolutely essential when it comes to any kind of writing.
It is not necessarily unprofessional to use a conversational tone. Press releases that are to professional are far too boring and likely won’t get read by as many people.
You’ll also want to remember that your audience is typically journalists who are not professionals in your industry. You won’t want to use a bunch of crazy jargon that your audience won’t understand.
It’s also important to avoid cliché quotes that mean nothing. This makes your brand same robotic and inhuman. A genuine voice is necessary for successful press statements.
Not Proofreading
Few things make a brand look less credible than grammar issues and spelling errors. Proofreading is an essential part of releasing a press statement. Even one small typo can damage your reputation.
Releasing It at the Wrong Time
Just like there are better and worse times to send emails, there are better and worse times to release press releases.
You don’t want to be sending out press releases after the end of the workday on the weekend. The best time to send a press release is on a Thursday. The best time to send your press releases is between 10 AM and 2 PM.
Not Including a Clear Call to Action
You want to make sure that you include a clear course of action at the end of your press release. For example, if your press statement exists for the purpose of announcing an event, then you want readers to know how to sign up.
Be Sure to Avoid These Press Release Mistakes
If you’ve gone to the trouble of writing a press release, the last thing you want to do is make this comment press release mistakes.
If writing isn’t your thing recently have too much on your plate to write your own press releases, you want to take a look at our professional press release writing service.
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